Bang Bravern wasn't what I expected, a simple Gundam-like story of good robots versus evil robots. Instead it's some sort of gay pride thing, mixed in with humanity torturing its own savior for no reason. That's about as bad as it gets.
Saikyou Tank is the same generic crap -- "I got thrown out of the hero's party but actually was the best member of it and now all the girls are flocking to me." There's some sort of instinctual appetite of boys to think they've been underrated by the world and deserve more, and every single one of these series strokes that same fantasy. But as Satono Diamond would say when Satono Crown wanted people to treat them with more respect despite having never won a G1 race -- "Stop. Results are everything." Instead of indulging in the fantasy that people will all suddenly change their minds about how great you are, stories should be teaching men how to be stoic like Satono Diamond. Either keep trying until you succeed, at which point people can no longer disrespect you because your accomplishments are a matter of factual record, or stop seeking other people's approval and derive worth from your own self-evaluation and God's. This third option doesn't exist, won't happen, and reinforces bad habits and thoughtpaths that will only depress the people who lean on them.
Solo Leveling is like Saikyou Tank except with a higher budget. "Everyone thought I was weak and worthless but now I'll show them by becoming the strongest thanks to this cheat power I alone was given to dominate the world." Another power fantasy that encourages bad ways of thinking because it will never happen in the real world. Everyone operates by the same rules in the real world, no one is given a special interface that gives them special quest rewards and stat ups that give them a leg up in competitions with others. If you want to beat other people you have to sacrifice more and work harder than they do. If you aren't willing to do that then you need to become a stoic who isn't concerned with whether you're better than others or worse. There is no third option.
Mato Seihei no Slave falls into a different error but an equally offensive one. Under no situation should a girl doing sexual acts against her own will be depicted in a positive or 'hubba hubba isn't this sexy for the currently watching male viewers' manner. Talk about encouraging bad habits and thoughtpaths, now we're encouraging rape and visiting prostitutes? Kimetsu no Yaiba has an entire season in a red light district and it was great, so does DanMachi, but they never wasted ten minutes graphically showing a prostitute actually doing her job so that we could watch on and enjoy. That would have been unthinkable. Yes, rape and prostitution exist, no, we shouldn't enjoy watching it happen. Not even Aiyoku no Eustia does that and the protagonist works at a freaking brothel. But Mato Seihei keeps pushing this in our face, down our throats, it's like half of every episode.
Honestly I feel like I could drop even more series and lose nothing from it, but I should stop while there's still something left to watch. At least give the anime a bit more of a grace period. Saijaku Tamer isn't as good as I had hoped it would be either, though certainly not bad. Aside from Sousou no Frieren and Sokushi Cheat this whole season is a dead space, three months of emptiness.
To up the irony, the coming spring season looks amazing. It's not that anime can't be good, it's just that they spontaneously chose to schedule all the bad anime for this winter. This spring we get more Hero Academy, Hibike! Euphonium, Kimetsu no Yaiba, KonoSuba, Spice & Wolf, Idolm@ster, Slime Tensei, Alya Sometimes Speaks in Russian, Yuru Camp, and some promising looking newcomers like Henjin Salad Bowl and One Room, Angel Included. If we're lucky we'll also get to see new Code Geass and Uma Musume oav's. The spring season is absolutely loaded. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up in April.
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